Brill’s Digital Library of World War I is an online resource that contains over 700 encyclopedia entries plus 250 peer-reviewed articles of transnational and global historical perspectives on significant topics of World War I. This collection includes Brill’s Encyclopedia of the First World War, an unrivalled reference work that showcases the knowledge of experts from 15 countries and offers 26 additional essays on the major belligerents, wartime society and culture, diplomatic and military events, and the historiography of the Great War.

The 250 articles address not only the key issues from political, historical and cultural perspectives, but also engages with aspects of the war which have remained underexplored such as the neutrals, the role of women before, during and after the war, and memory. The chapters have been drawn from a select number of Brill publications that have been published in the last 15 years.
Brill’s Digital Library of World War I is a unique digital library that will allow researchers to discover new perspectives and connections with the enhanced navigational tools provided.

Falkenhausen, Ludwig Alexander Baron von (September 13, 1844, Guben – May 4, 1936, Görlitz), German general. Falkenhausen had been a soldier since 1862, and had taken part in the wars of 1866 and 1870/1871. As commanding general of the XIIIth Army Corps, he had been placed on the inactive list in 1902. Recalled to active service at his own request in 1914, onSeptember 15 he took over command of the Falkenhausen Division (from April 1916 Army Division A) that, after the end of the border engagements b…

Falkenhayn, Erich von (September 11, 1861, Burg Belchau [Kreis Graudenz] – April 8, 1922, Schloss Lindstedt [near Potsdam]), German general and chief of the General Staff. Falkenhayn came from a West-Prussian “Junker” family with a strong military tradition. He entered the cadet corps at the early age of ten. He had a successful career as a young officer, and attended military academy. His life took an unusual turn when, in 1896, he took leave from the army and, for professional and financial reaso…

Falkland Islands An archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean; a British colony since 1843. On December 8, 1914, a battle was fought near the Falkland Islands between the German East Asia Squadron under Vice Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee and a British battle squadron under Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Doveton Sturdee. After a sea battle lasting approximately five hours, only one light cruiser survived from the German squadron; four German ships sank; of some 2,200 men on the German ships, 1,985 per…

Klinkert, W. -
Fall K. German Offensive Plans against the Netherlands 1916–1918
Keywords: army leadership | Dutch neutrality | Netherlands | Operationsentwurf Fall K
ISFWWS-Keywords: Germany | Netherlands | International Relations during the War | Naval Warfare | Britain
Abstract: This chapter is divided into the following parts: 1914, when the fortified positions take shape, 1915, when the tension rose, 1916, when the Operationsentwurf Fall K took form, 1917, when attack on the Netherlands was planned and 1918, which …

Famine The long duration of the war, reciprocal blockades of food imports, and the exploitation of regions occupied by the Central Powers all caused occasional dramatic occurrences of famine in the World War. In the German Reich and Austria especially, the food situation during the second half of the war was appalling. In Germany, the lack of planning to maintain the food supply in case of war was partly the blame for the quantitative and qualitative decline in the diet of a majority of the German civilian population. The weekly flour ration fell…

Fascism in Italy There is now broad agreement among historians as to the extremely close connection between Italy’s participation in the Great War and the rise of Fascism. The significance of this realization extends far beyond Italy’s own national historiography, as, with Fascism, there arose for the first time a political movement that was to leave a profound and lasting impression on the history of all Europe. The brevity of the interval between the Fascist assumption of power in Italy (Mussolin…

Fayolle, Marie Émile (May 14, 1852, Le Puy – August 27, 1928, Paris), French general. Fayolle became commander of the French Sixth Army during the battle of the Somme in 1916, an engagement in which his new command particularly distinguished itself. At the end of 1917 he took command of five British and six French divisions earmarked to stabilize the Italian Front after the Italian defeat at Caporetto (Karfreit). His final great test during the war was as commander of the French military reserve br…

Ferdinand I, King of Romania (August 24, 1865, Sigmaringen – July 20, 1927, Sinaia), king of Romania from 1914. Ferdinand, from the house of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, became heir to the Romanian throne upon his adoption by the childless King Carol I. Until the death of his adoptive father in October 1914, Ferdinand pursued a military career that culminated in leading Romania’s army in the Balkans War of 1913. He gained little in political status by his assumption of the throne, as, especially in fore…

Ferdinand I, Tsar of Bulgaria (February 26, 1861, Vienna – September 10, 1948, Coburg) Ferdinand, from the house of Sachsen-Coburg-Koháry, was elected Prince of Bulgaria against the bitter resistance of Russia, and to the discontent of Bismarck, in 1887. He became the tsar in the context of a national and constitutional crisis triggered by the abdication of Prince Alexander of Battenberg that was compelled by Russia in 1886. However, his influence, both internally and externally, was initially slight…

Ferry, Abel (May 26, 1881, Paris – September 15, 1918, Jaulzy [Aisne]), French politician. As nephew of Jules Ferry, the dominant French statesman of the 1880s, and as the son of the parliamentarian Charles Ferry, Abel Ferry came from a highly respected political family. After studying law in Paris, in 1909 he was elected to parliament as the deputy for Épinal (department of the Vosges), identifying himself with the moderate left. In the cabinet formed by René Viviani in 1914, Ferry was named unde…